Domestic
General Jackson’s wife was Rachel Donelson. She first contracted a marriage with Lewis Robards, who lived in the territory of Kentucky, then under the jurisdiction of Virginia. The marriage was not a happy one and she returned to her paternal home near Nashville. Robards presented a petition for divorce to the Legislature of Virginia, alleging desertion. At that time Legislatures passed upon and granted divorces. The news came in 1791 that the divorce had been granted. Later in the year Jackson and Mrs. Robards were married. It subsequently developed that the Virginia Legislature had not granted the divorce outright, but had authorized a court in the Kentucky territory to do so upon hearing of the facts. The divorce was not made effective until late in 1793. Immediately thereafter in 1794 Jackson and his wife were remarried. While this irregularity was without intent on the part of either, it was in after years used as the basis of attack upon Jackson by his political enemies, being especially stressed by them in the acrimonious campaign of 1828. These attacks were met by a plain statement of the facts to the country by Judge Overton, General Jackson’s close friend and one-time law partner.
The attacks gave deep distress to Mrs. Jackson, who was a truly good and noble woman and greatly beloved by all who knew her. One of the outstanding features of General Jackson’s life was his tender devotion to her. After her death this devotion continued to her memory until he was laid by her side. It was given beautiful expression in the epitaph which he himself wrote and which is carved upon her tomb in the Hermitage garden. No student of Jackson should fail to read and reread this epitaph.
Mrs. Jackson died December 22, 1828, just after her husband’s election to the Presidency. As he sat at her bier, he said: “What are all the world and its honors to me since she is taken from me?”
A great demonstration planned in Nashville in celebration of Jackson’s election was cancelled on account of Mrs. Jackson’s death.
General and Mrs. Jackson had no children. In 1809 they adopted the infant son of Severn Donelson, brother of Mrs. Jackson, and named him Andrew Jackson, Jr. He bore that name and became heir to all the estate.